The present invention is directed toward the field of portable electronic pillboxes. In particular, a compact, portable electronic pillbox is disclosed that includes special-purpose electronic circuitry and software that enables the user (i.e. patient) of the pillbox to schedule a multiple-drug therapy and also to automatically re-schedule the therapy by changing input data regarding the user's sleeping pattern.
The portable electronic pillbox disclosed herein includes a plurality of compartments for holding different medications. At the center of the pillbox is an electronic computer that allows a user to program the daily dosage of each pill (or medication) for each compartment. The user can also program the start and end times for actuating an alarm feature, wherein the start and end times are based on the user's sleep pattern. Having programmed the dosage for each compartment, and the start and end times of the user's day (i.e. the sleep pattern), the electronic computer can automatically calculate the times that the user should take a particular medication and can then notify the user when those times occur via an alarm, which can include a visual, audible and/or mechanical indicator. The electronic computer also provides numerous other features and functions, as described in more detail below, such as (i) the ability to inform the user of the next dosage time and the next dosage medications so that the user can always obtain precise information concerning the medication schedule; and (ii) the ability to automatically re-calculate the medication schedule when the user changes their sleeping pattern by responding to a change in the user-input start and end times, to name a few.
Today there are many ailments that require patients to take a multiple-drug therapy, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, AIDS, etc. In addition, it is very common for elderly persons to take multiple drugs for a variety of therapeutic reasons. These multiple drug therapies require that a plurality of different drugs are taken during the day, often in different dosage levels and at different times. For example, the dosage of one drug may be twice per day, while the dosage of another drug may be three times a day, etc., depending upon how many drugs are part of the multiple-drug therapy. Thus it can be very difficult for the patient, particularly if the patient is elderly, to remember when and what dosage to take for each of the plurality of medications. Non-compliance with the drug therapy as prescribed can pose serious health consequences for the patient, in the extreme case it could even cause loss of life. It is important, therefore, that patients who are taking a multiple-drug therapy are able to precisely administer their medications according to a prescribed schedule.
Presently there are known pillboxes (some electronic) that have been designed to assist patients with organizing their medications. Some of these include a plurality of compartments that are arranged, indexed and differentiated in units for use over a selected period of time. Many of these pillboxes do not have any kind of timing device to remind patients to take their medications so they do not enable patients to precisely administer their own medications. Some of these pillboxes do include electronic timers that remind the patient when to take a particular medication at a fixed time interval. However, these designs are generally not portable, and do not provide the features and functions that are necessary to intelligently administer, schedule, reschedule and provide information to the user regarding a multiple-drug therapy.
One presently known electronic pillbox is manufactured by American Medical Industries. This pillbox includes only two compartments, and also includes a timer device. Each of the two compartments can be programmed with a count-down timer. The user sets the timer to a particular time interval, and then starts the count-down by pressing a button. When the countdown timer reaches zero, an alarm sounds. The user then takes a pill and presses another button to reset the count-down timer. This design suffers from many disadvantages that make it not particularly useful for administering a multiple-drug therapy, such as: (1) it only includes two compartments, and thus it is limited to a two-drug therapy; (2) there is no "one-to-one" correspondence between the alarm and the compartment, meaning that when the alarm sounds there is no indication of what pill to take--this could obviously have disastrous consequences for the patient; (3) the user must "reset" the timer each time the alarm goes off, so if the user forgets to press the reset button, the device will not remind the user to take their next dosage, again with potentially disastrous consequences for the patient; and (4) it does not provide the intelligence to schedule, reschedule and display pertinent information to the user regarding their therapy.
Another presently known electronic pillbox is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,037 to Raven ("Raven"). The Raven pillbox includes a timer device. The user can set nine different alarm times, e.g., at 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm, etc. When the current time measured by an internal clock matches one of the alarm times, an alarm will sound. The alarm remains on until the user opens the lid of the container, and then the alarm will go off. Each time the user opens the lid, a visual indicator is displayed on an included LCD to indicate that the pillbox has been opened. By counting the visual indicators, the user knows how many times he has taken a particular pill. This design also suffers from many disadvantages that make it not useful for administering a multiple-drug therapy, such as: (1) it does not indicate which medication the user should take; (2) it does not provide a one-to-one correspondence between the nine different alarm times and a plurality of different compartments; (3) it requires the user to count the number of times a particular medication has been taken, which could be difficult for a mentally challenged individual; (4) it is not designed to provide multiple-pill indications, i.e., there is no way to indicate that a user needs to take more than one kind of medication at any specific time; and (4) it does not provide information to the user regarding the schedule of medications to take in the next dosage cycle.
Another presently known electronic medication organizer is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,105 to Miller ("Miller"). The Miller organizer has four compartments, and each compartment has an associated timer device that can be programmed with dosage interval and start time. Using this information, the compartment timer calculates the next dosage time and displays it to the user. Like the previously discussed systems, this device also suffers from many disadvantages that make it not useful for administering a multiple-drug therapy, such as: (1) it is not a compact, portable design and therefore cannot be taken with a user who is traveling, at work, or otherwise not at home; (2) it requires a plurality of timers that must be individually set by the user; (3) its scheduling principle is based on a fixed time interval between each dosage, so that if a user changes their sleeping pattern a dosage could be missed; and (4) it is complex, large, and would be costly to manufacture, and thus not available to lower income users.
Therefore, there remains a general need in this field for a low cost, portable, electronic pillbox that is capable of administering a multiple-drug therapy.
There remains a more particular need for such an electronic pillbox that provides a one-to-one correspondence between a plurality of medication compartments and indicators that inform the patient of which medications should be taken.
There remains still an additional need for such an electronic pillbox that is capable of dynamically rescheduling dosage times and alarms based upon a change in the user's sleeping pattern.
There remains another need for such an electronic pillbox that includes computer software intelligence that enables the user to precisely administer, schedule, reschedule and obtain information regarding the multiple-drug therapy.
There remains still another need for such an electronic pillbox that can provide numerous alarm types, such as audible, visual, and/or mechanical alarms, and which provides a correspondence between these alarms and the medications to be administered.